Composting in New York

New York City’s neighborhood groups have been coming together for a few centuries now to carry out community improvement projects that address any kind of quality-of-life issue.

But now we see a surge in micro-grants being made to advance the number of hyper-local composting sites across the city (in line with the mayor’s recent initiative) and a rising demand for D.I.Y. rainwater harvesting workshops for everyday New Yorkers to combat the scorching Julys of the last few years.

As Mr. Nabhan notes, cities are “a great source of compostable waste.” They are the true activists that fight big agribusinesses but are far too seldom credited for their grass-roots advocacy work: building the infrastructure for the modern urban farm grid.

SALEEN SHAHDirector of Communicationsand OutreachCitizens Committee for New York CityNew York, July 22, 2013